OcUK Christmas cooking competition - Judging with Jonny69

Better late than never I have been kindly asked to cook two of the dishes entered in the OcUK Christmas Cooking Competition. I have two fantastic looking plates of food to cook from OcUK big-guns MKS2005 and Miracleboy. Be nervous boys because I am a hard judge and you will not like me. But the more you hate me the more you will learn. I am hard but I am fair.

For two great dishes I'm going to need some great ingredients and Marks and Spencer is the perfect place to buy them. Here's the contents of my lurid green shopping bag:



I have free range chicken leg quarters on special offer at two packs for £3 and I've seperated the drumsticks for another day and boned the thighs. Miracleboy's recipe calls for chicken stock so I smashed the bones and let them bubble down with some onion and carrot to a thick stock for his sauce. There's a large butternut squash, a bottle of unoaked chardonnay, red onions, potatoes, baby cabbage, cream, goat's cheese and puff pastry. That little lot came to £16 and will feed me some 4-5 pretty special meals.

So that you know how I have prepared and cooked the two meals as they were intended I was supplied with an ingredient list, preparation technique with quantities and a photo log of how it looked at each stage from the entrants. I have copied it as best as I can so I should have a fairly accurate representation of what was originaly cooked.

So bear with me while I sit here feeling fat and stuffed and write up my comments on our first entrant's plate of food...

Looks like a decision is immanent then

Burnsy

Miracleboy - Chicken Wellington stuffed with Balsamic Caramelised Red Onions and Goats Cheese. Served with posh Thyme Chips, Butternut Squash Mash and White Wine and Cream Sauce.



This is a chicken en croute. Inside is a chicken thigh containing balsamic caramelised red onions and soft goat's cheese. This is wrapped in blanched cabbage leaves and puff pastry and baked. The chicken is served with simple mashed butternut squash with butter and oven baked chips with thyme. The dish is drizzled with a white wine and cream sauce made with the reduced stock from the chicken bones.

So the important part of this meal is the balsamic caramelised onion and this is first to get going so it can cook down while the rest of the ingredients are prepared:



On the side I had the stock bubbling away made by smashing the bones from the chicken thighs, browning off with half an onion, half a carrot, a pinch of herbs and salt and pepper and covering with boiling water:



Here's my finished dish

After two months I was hoping that the ingredients were being specially grown

So let me get this straight.

Mr Jonny69 here will cook two dishes that where entered into the OcUK Christmas Cooking Competition and using his own cooking skills will decide on which dish is the best after he has ate them?

Azza said:

So let me get this straight.

Mr Jonny69 here will cook two dishes that where entered into the OcUK Christmas Cooking Competition and using his own cooking skills will decide on which dish is the best after he has ate them?

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how else should it be judged?

His cooking skills will be equal on both dishes.

.

Azza said:

So let me get this straight.

Mr Jonny69 here will cook two dishes that where entered into the OcUK Christmas Cooking Competition and using his own cooking skills will decide on which dish is the best after he has ate them?

Click to expand...

*burp* yup

I've cooked them exactly as instructed. The only difference on this one may be if Miracleboy CHEATED!!! and used chicken oxo cubes. Oh and I cooked half quantities because these guys are clearly a lot hungrier than I can handle

Azza said:

So let me get this straight.

Mr Jonny69 here will cook two dishes that where entered into the OcUK Christmas Cooking Competition and using his own cooking skills will decide on which dish is the best after he has ate them?

Click to expand...

Jonny is just one of the judges. The others, Burnsy2023 and JodieG, have already cooked the dishes.

AcidHell2 was supposed to be the final judge, but apparently he doens't have net access at the moment so Jonny69 was drafted in at the last moment.

It's all in the cooking thread that's stickied!

Haircut said:

Jonny is just one of the judges. The others, Burnsy2023 and JodieG, have already cooked the dishes.

AcidHell2 was supposed to be the final judge, but apparently he doens't have net access at the moment so Jonny69 was drafted in at the last moment.

It's all in the cooking thread that's stickied!

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Indeed, myself and Jodie cooked the dishes a while ago but needed a third judge, which is where Jonny saves the day

I'm just as frustrated as everyone else, but at least we'll have a winner soon

Burnsy

My thoughts on the Miracleboy's food...

It's a good looking dish and smells great when it's cooking. Miracleboy was very specific on how the dish should be assembled on the plate and I have followed those instructions. I like the use of the stock for a sauce as I have always promoted utilising the whole of an animal when you want to eat it. I feel like there has been some thought gone into texture as we've got the chicken with it's soft centre, crisp pastry, soft mash and crunch on the oven baked potato wedges.

Overall it's a quite a sweet tasting plate of food. There's sweetness from the squash and the caramelised onions and not much to contrast that sweetness. The strong flavours from the goat's cheese working with the caramelised onions do overpower the chicken somewhat even with free range chicken which is stronger tasting and you can't really make out the chicken. I think I'd have preferred smaller quantities of the onions or maybe just the goats cheese inside and the onions on the side as a chutney, but this would work better with a strong tasting game bird in my opinion. The sauce came out very well though I did reduce it further than the original recipe in anticipation of the strong flavours inside the chicken. All ingredients specified in the brief were used though the cabbage round the chicken did turn the pastry a little soggy and did not add anything to it so I feel it didn't need to be there. The thyme on the potatoes was a nice touch but again was overpowered by the onions and goat's cheese. I don't think I would have omitted it though.

Having said that, it was a delicious plate of food which I enjoyed. I am very full and there is another one prepared and ready to cook in the freezer. Many thanks for the submission, I have been challenged in the kitchen this evening and the effort was worth the trouble

I'll be marking fully when I've cooked MKS2005's so watch this space.

Wow, in depth review there Jonny... Looks like a damn good recipe miracleboy.

I eagerly await the criticism of mine now

This is better than Masterchef I tell thee.

Thats a great review!

I will definitely do the next one!

Thanks for the review! It's great to see all the effort being put in to the judging.

Jonny are you a chef?

No I'm a nerd

Any idea when you're going to have time to Cook MKS'?

Burnsy

Tonight with a bit of luck

Jonny69 said:

I've seperated the drumsticks for another day and boned the thighs

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Tony Williams said:

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Dirty git

Burnsy